Category: random
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Nice White Librarians
Much like neutrality, niceness* is a quality that I believe causes more harm than good, in almost every situation, but especially in workplaces, and especially libraries. Librarianship is rife with nice white lady librarians. They dominate the profession and thereby the professional culture. And boy, few things are more terrible than a nice white lady…
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Calling in Librarianship: A Manifesto
What is calling in? To state it simply, it’s a much nicer way of calling people out: Much like calling out, calling in aims to get the person to change their problematic behavior. The primary difference between calling in and calling out is that calling in is done with a little more compassion and patience. EveryDay Feminism I’m…
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Librarianship, friends, is not cool
Librarianship, friends, is not cool. We must not say so. But I will say so. It’s kind of my thing. Librarianship is not cool. Librarians are not cool. Libraries are not cool. Libraries are for nerds, and dorks, and outcasts, who want to dig deep into a subject and hardly come up for air. Libraries…
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Management According to Hamilton: Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton Their name is Alexander Hamilton, and don’t you forget it. In fact, you couldn’t, even if you tried. This employee doesn’t usually stay around too long, but when they’re in your organization, you can’t avoid hearing their name. They work their way into the best projects and onto the most interesting committees,…
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libraries are not neutral spaces, and neither is the human heart
I’ve heard it in more than one training and workshop that part of customer service is when you’re faced with an unhappy or even irate patron, you should consider what has happened in their day, their week, their life, up until that very moment, that might be causing their distress. If there is an outburst,…
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Why Kids Need to Read What They Want
In the most recent edition of Cover to Cover by K.T. Horning, there are no early childhood, middle grade, or ya distinctions in books for children. Encompassing fiction and nonfiction, the breakdown is: Picture books (including board books) Readers/Beginning Readers/Easy Readers Transitional books Chapter books That’s it. We have those formats, and within those formats, every genre is…
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Stuck in the Middle With You
I don’t like the term middle grade, even though I love a lot of books that fall under that umbrella. Middle grade books are not for middle schoolers, but the confusing terminology flummoxes a lot of teachers and parents. If you’re also unclear, here’s the breakdown: Middle grade= a publishing classification; literature for 8-12 year olds.…
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Wolf Hollow review
Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk Cross The Bad Seed with To Kill A Mockingbird and add a dash of Night of the Hunter, King Lear (“I would fain learn to lie,” says the Fool), and Rebecca (the first line of this book is just as haunting as “Last night I dreamt of Manderly again”), and…
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reader feed round-up
Here’s some blogs that I’ve been enjoying recently: Teacher Tom, a blog about early childhood and how kids learn and explore. Maria’s Movers, a very niche blog about incorporating literacy in movement and vice-versa; a great resource for anyone who presents a program similar to my Mini Movers. Found via someone’s blog…I can’t remember, I…
Hi, Miss Julie 